Why Retire?

There are a few reasons people retire from this job and it seems everybody has their own reason(s). As I see on social guys/girls retire for the most part because they know its their time, some had a plan and the rest had things happen to them that made them retire, it wasn’t just one thing in particular but a series of events for me.

I had a plan!

I was going to do 27 which would have given me the max pension(3 yrs of Military bought). It didn’t work out that way(lemons to lemonade), but it worked out just fine. I did 24yrs 2 mos., but Military time bought gave me a pension of 27years 2mos. total.

Reality sets in.

Keep in mind I took this job knowing I was going to be a city worker and it was my job to clean this city and the pension that was going to be there at the end of the road. No romanticizing it, clean the streets was my job. With that said my job description changed to more of a figure head and not so much of a person being needed. I was never one that liked being useless, but that was what I became. I know what most people would say ” As long as I’m being paid, so what if I’m useless, pay me!). Easier said that done moment.

I came on and was taught by a generation of men that had the mind set of “Just get the job done!”, they didn’t care how it was done, just get it done. That is how my mindset was for most of my career, but times did changed and it became more of “This is how I wanted done” and when it didn’t work out the way it was wanted done, I would get banged(8 complaints within the last year, smh).

Overall it was a good run, the only regret was not passing Supers exam earlier when I had a chance to advance and make more money, I finally passed it thanks to Chief Jose Garcia, but I turned it down because of the timing(too late in career).

Decision time.

My family was having some hard times with their jobs and it was affecting my job and it was becoming more burdensome coming to work knowing my family needed me, even if they didn’t know it. My wife just said that this is the first time that I have put the family first in years, I always thought that I put them first, but I know now that was not the case, it might of felt that way but it wasn’t.

The straw that broke the camels back.

To make matters worst the support system that I had the first 20 years was not there for me the last 4, it was a different breed coming up and it was not pretty and you could feel the change in the air. Time to go!

Summary:

Pension + Defer + Social Security(next year) = 🙂

Going on 3 years retired and I’m very happy with my life and love being there for my family.

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